IWDM on Surah Al-Falaq (113) & An-Naas (114)
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
As-Salaam-Alaykum, that is, peace be unto you Bismillah Ar Rahmaan Ar Raheem, was salaat was salaam wa Alaa kullihi Kareem. Salaallahu alahi was salaam, wa alaihi was sahbeehi ijmaa’ amma baa’d.
This is a special presentation that we are giving on the verses of the Qur’aan, the chapter of the Qur’aan by the title, “The Dawn”, and the chapter by the title, “Mankind”, Sooratu-l- Al-Falaq and Soorati-n-Naas. Inshallah, with G’d's help as he wills we will be relating verses of Al-Falaq that is the chapter titled, “The Dawn”, or “The Daybreak”, to conditions of the soul, that is, as the soul is burdened by the mind itself; the burden on perception, on our perception, the burden on us to see correctly, to perceive correctly. This burden that we see changing over the history or over the span of time, giving us at certain events of time, major developments in the history of man that oppress major developments in the history of man; that oppress the soul, the mind, the intellect and the ability to perceive correctly.
We will also be giving the Arabic vocabulary for these two chapters, the chapter The Dawn Al-Falaq and the chapter An Naas, Mankind. However, we should begin with a kind of introduction. To introduce this presentation, we want to look at faith, the concept of faith very briefly, and the concept of obedience, very briefly. Mind you, the terminology, the meanings, the information, will all be coming from Islamic sources; this is an Islamic presentation. Faith for Muslims is a rational faith as well as a spiritual faith. I'm using the term spiritual here now not in contrast with rational, but for the need for better term, I'm using spiritual in that connection.
We have spiritual faith and also rational faith. For us, faith is both spiritual and rational. By that, we mean that we have to believe in some things that we cannot fully digest or understand with our individual rational ability. However, we as Muslims are given knowledge from the Holy book, the Qur’aan---the last Revelation to Mohammad, the prophet, the last prophet, peace, and blessing be on him---we are given knowledge from that book that makes it very clear to us that we do have rational basis for our faith. Obedience, here by the term obedience, is meant really service, devotion, and worship. Whatever we give in service, of our devotions or for the need to worship, is all for the one Lord, creator of the Heavens and the earth, Allah.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, highly glorified, is He above all defects, or limitations. He says “Ma khalaqtu aljinna waalinsa illaa liya ‘abudooni” and it is translated, “I have not created the human beings, or the Jinn, except for my worship". Here the purpose of our creation is given; we are created for G’d's worship. We are created to worship him. Worship, we come now to the term ‘abadat worship, or devotion, in our religion is all encompassing for us. It covers the whole life for us. It covers whatever we do. All our acts should be acts in obedience to our Lord, creator, Allah. That is to say, although we do not feel the strong spiritual awareness when we are going to work that we feel when we're going to the mosque, to the masjid, the house of worship, the house of prayer; we don't feel the same spiritual awareness, or the same degree I would say of spiritual awareness. But we must understand that in our religion, lawful work is an act of worship, an act of obedience to Allah, it is an act of worship. We're required to do that by Allah. Prayer as we make the prayer like this (demonstrating by holding his hands with the palms turn upwards) du’aa called du’aa, calling on G’d for personal help, or for help as individuals. Just giving a du’aa prayer to G’d, a plea to G’d, we may say. This is to us not as important as joining others in salaat, which is another term for prayer, institutional prayer, or group prayer, congregational prayer, formal prayer, prayer that is prescribed by G’d, ordered for certain periods of time during the day---five times during the day, at exact times. That is the prayers, prescribed for us in the holy book of G’d, to be given at definite times during the day.
The Fajr prayer---before daybreak prayer, before dawn, pardon me, before sunrise prayer, when the dawn just begins to show. And the noon prayer, the Zhoohr prayer immediately after the sun hits the noon point and the shadow changes its direction. And the ‘Asr Prayer coming immediately after The Zhuhr Prayer and the Maghrib prayer the fourth coming after the sun has set, but immediately after the sun has set while the red glow of the sunset is still in the sky on the western horizon. And the ‘Ishaa Prayer, the night prayer, said when it is dark when it is night.
These are the five prayers and these prayers are devotions to G’d. However, I'm emphasizing now, when we do lawful work, when we care for our children, when we see to their health needs and to their educational needs, when we are decent and supportive of our wife, of our mates, and our husband, and the family, all of that is act of worship with Muslims. If we become a professor in some field of knowledge and we are lecturing to a group in the school, on the campus, or we are writing books, educational books, doing educational work, that is great worship in our religion. That is devotion and worship to G’d. All that comes under ‘abadat, devotion, and worship of G’d.
Now, in this introduction I have briefly, very briefly, discussed faith, the concept of faith that is a rational faith, though we can't always perceive everything like the life hereafter or the resurrection of the dead. We can't perceive all of these things or the existence of angels. We can't perceive all of these things very clearly and understand them rationally, to explain them very thoroughly and clearly for ourselves or for the others. But we have rational basis in our religion. We have a rational basis for believing in those and everything else that we believe in.
Abraham is the symbol or the focus for our coming into that kind of faith, a rational faith. And we have discussed worship in a broad sense, in a broader sense of the word as any act that is lawful, accepted by G’d that contributes to some good or some benefit is worship. Whether it be in the mosque, or in the work field, or in education, or in some other field.
Now, I would like to mention something that is called Al Qadar. This is translated sometimes pre destination or predetermination. Some like to use the word predetermination and no matter what the situation is we have to acknowledge and know this that in our religion there is no such thing as fatalism. We don't believe in any such thing as fatalism. That is we give up today because tomorrow is going to be the way it is whether we do anything today or not. We don't believe that. We believe in working today, and working every day, and working every minute of the day, every hour and every minute of our conscious life, working on having a better record when we die to present in the judgment. Al qadaru khairahi wa sharrahi min Allah ta’ala is translated into English: The qadr or qadrihi the potential-- we will give this translation, the potential for good and harm is from G’d. The potential for good and harm is from G’d. Some seem to think that this means, that it suggests also a kind of fatalistic belief that, “I am going to be good. G’d has made me this way and nothing can change it. It's going to be that way. I have nothing to do with it.” “I'm going to be bad G’d created me to be bad, so I'm going to be bad. I have nothing to do with it. I have to accept I'm going to be bad.”
That is disbelief in our religion. That is the belief of a nonbeliever. We believe that G’d has given us the free will, and intelligence, and human faculties, and human nature, and we are here as independent people with a limited independence where we have to be responsible for ourselves. We are to always accept responsibilities for our life and for our behavior and believe that G’d have given us a potential for good and a potential for harm. Everything not just us, but everything G’d created, has a potential for good, a potential for benefit and a potential for harm.
Now we will go from here to the board and we are going to discuss these two chapters that I mentioned in the opening Sooratul Falaq and Sooratun Naas, which is the last chapter of the Qur’aan. I would like first to begin with Sooratul Falaq, and yes, and put some vocabulary, some words, and terms from this Soorah, this chapter on the board. The first term we are going to put on the board comes at the beginning of this chapter says Qul. Qul is a term in Arabic meaning, “say”; say, two letters, just two Arabic letters makes Qul “say”. Qul this is Qul, “say”. It should be two dots here. I'm going to make it good for the board, for the camera maybe.
Qul, this is a big Qul, it means “say”. This is “say”. “Say”. There shouldn't be any wavy mark here. I'm used to using chalk. I have to get used to this marker here. Qul means, “say”. And we have come to another word, a’oodhu. It comes from the word ‘aadha like this. ‘aadha this should be a dot ‘aadha. ‘aadha means to seek protection, to seek refuge, to seek protection.
The next word we are going to use is a one letter word, “Bi” it is written like this, one dot. “Bi” I hope we get a dot here. It is supposed to be a dot, this Bi; it has a little dash under it for the sound Bi.
This means with, or by, or through, to seek help from, with G’d, to seek help through G’d, etc.
And the next word we want to put is Rabb. We want to separate these in columns here you see. This is one and this is Rabb. It has a double sign here; it means shaddah a double letter that means double letter: Rabb.
The next word we're going to put is Falaq. This is the vocabulary of the Soorah Falaq., there it is: Falaq; two dots over this Qaaf.
The next word we want is Min. Now, these words begin with just the first verse and it goes through to Falaq. The next word will start with the second verse. I'm going to put a little circle here to let you know we start with the second verse. That is the two, in the lugha Arabiyya that is the Arabic number two.
The next is Min like that; Min. This word means “from”. And also, we have another word Sharr. This is the word, an important word; a very important word for understanding this chapter Sharr. We put here---I better go here now with a separation there Sharr. Sharr like this Sharr. Sh---three dots, three dots, these are dots. Remember these are dots. Sharr this is Sh--- and a double letter, double R, double R, Sharr. This is a word we mentioned qadrahi we said Al qadaru khairahi wa sharrahi min Allah ta’ala, qadrahi is the potential for Sharr for doing harm or evil or bad mischief. This is translated mischief sometimes.
And also the potential for doing good, for doing that that benefits, that which is useful and helpful. Both are from G’d. G’d gave us the potential. If He gave us free will, conscience, intelligence and free will, then that is the same as saying that He also gave us the potential. We have the potential to do good, and the potential to do bad. It is left with us whether we're going to use that potential for good or use that potential for harm, Min Sharr.
And then we have Min Khalaq, Khalaq. We are going to put two words together, maaKhalaq; maa and Khalaq, maaKhalaq. Actually it is the past tense verb Khalaqa. I'll put it here Khalaqa. When we read, we stop on this word; we don't pronounce this vowel “A”. We say Khalaq, not Khalaqa, MaaKhalaq.
And we have here now to begin another verse. Also, I'll put the three for the next verse we are starting. This is a three in lugha Arabiyya in Arabic language, three. And three we have Ghaasiqin, the word Ghaasiqin. We have Sharree Ghaasiqin. You had Sharree already in the vocabulary so I will just put Ghaasiqin; Ghaa-See-Qin. Min Sharri Ghaasiqin Idhaa. Now we want another word, Idhaa. Idhaa, well, let's see, we will get it here. Make another column, Idhaa. This word means “when”. When it occurs, Idhaa; or if it should occur, at what time or when.
Idhaa Wa Qaba. The next word is Wa-QaBa Wa Qaba, two dots, Qa-Ba, Wa Qaba. When it becomes intense, this is the darkness Ghaasiqin darkness; when it becomes Wa Qaba intense, very intense or very dense, deep, thick, thick darkness, gross darkness, heavy darkness. Wa Qaba.
We have another word which comes from ANafaathaati. We are going to use the past tense verb Nafaatha, Na-Faa-Tha. This is a dot, Na- a dot Faa have to get that, and this is Tha three dots, Tha; Na-Faa-Tha, Nafaatha. Idha Wa Qaba. Wa Min Sharree Nafaathai coming from this word Nafaatha. Now we have another word for the vocabulary Fee which means “in”. Fee usually Fee in ordinary script will have two dots under here for the Yaa, but in Qur’aan, the Fee will have no dots. This is Yaa the last letter Yaa will have no dots like this Fee.
“Feel ‘Uqad”, now we want the word ‘Uqad, Uqad. I'm going to try to get all this from one chapter on one board, ‘Uqad. ‘Ain-Oo-qad let me stand out of the way so you can see. Ain-Oo-Qad it should be, An-Oo-Qad. The next word we have An-oo-Qad. Now we come to the fourth verse, Haasadin “one who envies”; Idha Haasada, Idha Haasada. We are going to put the past tense verb Haasada, Haasada, Haa-Sa-Da.
Now, let's read the verse from the Qur’aan with the translation given in this translation by Yusuf Abdullah Ali. Let me see here. We are going to read the Soorah and give the translation. This is a very special edition done in sacred Mecca. It was done in sacred Mecca, a very special edition, done in sacred Mecca. The verses have been measured on each page so that the reader does not have to go to the next page to pick up the remainder of a verse, of any verse. Every verse will be completed on the page itself. They wrote the translator is not here but I'm sure this is the translation that is used, that this has been taken from. It might have been made again but it's basically the same as the one by Yusuf Abdullah.
Now let's read the chapter Al-Falaq. It begins as all the chapters begin, except one, the ninth chapter. With Bismillah Ar Rahmaan Ar Raheem and as you perhaps know the words Bismillah Ar Rahmaan Ar Raheem appears in the text of that ninth chapter also. Qul, Say, a’oodhu birabil Falaq; I seek refuge or seek protection with the lord of the dawn. That is the Lord of the daybreak or the dawn. Min Sharri maa Khalaq from the mischief of created things or from the harm or the evil or from the bad of created things. Wa min sharri ghasiqin idhaa wa qab and from the mischief of darkness as it over spreads. Remember we used the term ghaasiq meaning intense, dense, very heavy, gross darkness. Wa min sharri an naffaathaati fil ‘uqad and from the mischief of those who blow on knots. Wa min sharri haaasidin idhaa hasad and from the mischief of the envier or the envious one, as he practices envy.
Now let us quickly just read again over this so we can kind of comment or make some further explanation. Say, I seek refuge with the Lord of the dawn or the Lord of the daybreak. Now, if you want to go directly to the physical concept that is referred to here, we have to wake up early in the morning before daybreak and see the first light appearing in the eastern sky and witness the dawn, or the daybreak.
However, we know also and we read something on the soul. I will read it now about the soul where G’d tells us in Sooratus Shams In Sooratus Shams the chapter titles “The Sun” As Shams, the Sun. It says here, we have it right here. I’ll read it directly from the text here. In the seventh verse of this chapter, "By the soul, and the proportion, and honor given to it", Verse eight, "and inspirations as to its wrong and its right"; Verse nine, "truly he succeeds that purifies it or make contribution to his soul, to the purity, and growth of his soul and he fails that corrupts it".
In Arabic, in the original language of the text, begins “Wan nafsin wa maa sauwhaa, faa alhamaaha foojoorahaa wa taqwaahaa; qad iflaha man zakkaahaa; wa qad khaaba man dassaahaa”. These are the verses. So we have here, what we read this for is to bring to your attention---bring to our attention--- the soul as it is given in the Qur’aan, that the soul is the seat of both the morality of men and also the intellect, the rational mind or the rational conscience of men. As we conclude, this particular part on Sooratul-Falaq, we have to understand that reference is not only made to the physical dawning or the physical daybreak; it is also made to the dawning of intelligence and morality intelligence in our souls, in our souls.
And you wish we had more time to deal with the historical problems for that dawning. We will conclude that chapter now, comments on that chapter, and we will go to the next chapter. Sooratun Nas.
Again, we will put the vocabulary on the board. The vocabulary for Sooratun Nas begins again with the word Qul, Qul. It begins Qul a’oodhu birabbin naas; since we are not going to repeat the vocabulary, so we will only mention An Naas. Since we are talking about the Soorah talking about Naas first, we put An Naas only An Naas. We will start with An Naas. This is the first verse. The second verse, the Arabic too will be Malikin naas. We only need this one, Malik, malikin. This should not be wavy, waving, but it’s because of my not being used to handling this marker on this board. I’m getting used to it, though. Malikin, Maliki. Qul a’oodhu birabbin naas, malikin naas. Maliki and it goes with---into the Noon of Naas to form Malik-in Naas. And the next one is ilaaha, ilaahin Naas and it’s three. The verse three will have ilaahin Naas, E-laa-hin, going into the N of Naas ilaahin Naas, ilaahin.
There should be no connection here I did it because I want to give the view to the camera so that the viewers can see what we’re doing here. malikin naas and we have ilaahin naas, the third one. And then, the fourth one we have a’oodhu birabbin naas; malikin naas; ilaahin naas the third one, min sharri-l-waswaasi. We already have sharr from the vocabulary of Al-Falaq, so we won’t put sharr here to save time. We are going to put Al Waswaas, al waswaas, min sharri-l-waswaasi. And waswaasi-l, I hope this comes out good. Al-Waswaas and min sharri-l-waswaas. And this waswaas it comes in the fourth, the fourth verse.[35:40]
Then we have Sodoorin Naas we had min sharri-l-waswaasi-l-khannaas. We also have to put Al Khannaas; Al-Khan-naas and this shouldn’t be wavy here, it should be a dot one dot over here; Al-Khan- the noon, one dot here; Khannaas double letter, (shaddah) for double letter, Al Khannaas; min sharri-l-waswaasi-l-khannaas. Alladhee, Alladhee the next word will be Alladhee. We want to keep it kind of separated here; Al-la-dhee, Alladhee two dots Alladhee with the double letter for L. alladhee; al-la-dhee this means “which” alladhee. Alladhee yuwaswisu.
Yuwaswisu is same thing from as waswaas, yuwaswisu .We won’t put yuwaswisu, and we are going to the next verse five. Verse five, and we put suduor---hearts. This is the word here that we want to dwell on a little bit, suduor, hearts, su-duor hearts. Alladhee yuwaswisu fee suduori-n-naas---the hearts of the people; suduori-n-naas---su-duori then an-naas---suduori-n-naas. Min-“from” min al jinnati wa-n-naas. We already have min so we will just put the next new word, word for us in the vocabulary of these two verses, min al-jinnati.
We already have min so we put al-jinnati. Again, “jay” the dot for the “jay” and we need the double letter over the “n” jin-na-ti; min al jinnati wan naaas and we have “wa” it means “and” goes here. It means “and”, wan naas.
Now, we have the full vocabulary for the two short verses, the full vocabulary. Let us see now can we read from Qur’aan quickly this verse. We want to read it through. The last chapter, pardon me, the last chapter of the Qur’aan titled An-Nas. It reads Qul---say--- ‘aaoodhu birabbii-n-naas; Say, Qul I seek refuge, I seek protection with the Lord of the people, the Lord of mankind, the Lord of all people; maliki-n-naas the master, pardon me, the master or the king the master or the king of the people---maliki-n-naas---the king, or ruler, or master of the people. Ilaahi-n-naas the G’d or judge, the one to whom we give worship and adoration, love and adoration ilaahi-n-naas. Min sharri-l-waswaasi-l-khannaas from the mischief-- here, this translation has given the translation of sharr which means 'evil', 'harm’, ‘bad', 'mischief', have given it the translation 'mischief' again; from the mischief of the whisperer---the whisper. This al waswaas is a whisperer---a whisperer; Al Khannaas the whisperer of evil, of corruption who withdraws after he whispers; Al Khannaas who withdraws from sight or from detection after he whispers, Alladee waswisu he whispers, fee suduori-n-naas who whispers into the hearts of the people or mankind. And the next verse the sixth verse: mina-l-jinnati wan-naas from the jinns and from the men.
Now if we may quickly comment on the vocabulary of that last chapter, soorati-n-naas. Let us see if we can have a better understanding of the vocabulary of that soorati-n-naas. The hearts the suduor the hearts of the people; the hearts of the people are vulnerable; this is a vulnerable organ or vulnerable spot for human beings---the heart.
We start off with understanding, the right understanding. We believe in G’d, and we clear, and faith is clear and our hearts and our minds are clear, and then the world with his mounting evils, and mounting mischief, and deceptions begin to fool too many of us, and trick too many of us, and cause too many of us to come away from the strong and clear position that we took as people of faith and people of understanding. And our hearts begin to be tested. We find ourselves giving our adoration to heroes in the society. We find ourselves giving our fear to threats in the society. Some people fear the doomsday, not for the sake of obeying G’d, but they fear the doomsday because they don't want to lose their lives as creatures of mortal fear.
And this causes us to lose the direction in our life, and lose the history of our life that we have been made human beings, and we have been given by our creator nature in our parents in our father, nature in our mother, and nature in the family members and in the family as a whole to care for us, to have mercy on us, to help us get on our feet, to help us become adults responsible for ourselves, and that G’d has been, not only our creator, but He has been our caretaker, in caring for us and giving us everything that we needed for our well being through our nature, through the creation of our nature; the nature of parents, and children, and family, brother and sisters, and the family itself.
We forget that the second stage developed where the family came out of the small social community of the family, and joined the outer community and lost its direction because of mischief and temptation et cetera, from Satan and from the society influenced by Satan. We lose that and we begin to think that some authority is higher than the one who created us; higher than the one that made the good life possible for us. We begin to look to others as our malik, our authority, our king, our master, our ruler over G’d. We put these over G’d and make the great mistake. Then we also reach the point where we begin to idolize. We look for heroes to idolize. We look for celebrities to make our heroes. Personalities charming and charismatic personalities to look up to and to imitate, and we forget that Allah is the one that should always remain our hero. He was our hero in the beginning and is always our hero eternally, and we are to only idolize, and worship, and adore and that way the Lord creator of the heavens and the earth who is Allah subhaana wata ‘alaa Highly glorified is He above all defects and limitations.
Finally, concluding these comments on the vocabulary of soorati-n-naas we have, who whisper min sharre waswaasi from the evil or the harm of the whisper the alladhee yuwawisu fee sudiorri-n-naas who whispers into the hearts of the people.
Whispers, whispers; what is this whispering? What is this whispering? It means the suggestion; casting evil suggestions, reaching us with mischief, with harmful suggestion coming from bad things and deceitful things in our environment; and sometimes from within ourselves. Sometimes we are the source of our own deception, and it reachs us and corrupt us. It comes from what? “Mina-l- jinnati” from the jinn. What are the jinn? The Jinns we believe that they are, G’d created creatures that are similar to human beings in that they are rational, they have minds and limited free will, like human beings, but they are not classified as human beings because they are mysterious beings too. They can come to us in many disguises---in many disguises. Take on the appearance of a human being, or take on the appearance of something else. Come to us through many disguises. The most important thing to remember about these is that they leave the rational straight way; they are not on the rational straight way except those who repent. The Jinns have to repent too and we know according to the Qur’aan, the revelation came down, a number, a of party of the Jinns heard the great revelation of Qur’aan and they said that we bear witness that this Qur’aan is authentic, that it is from the Lord of the world.
So we do believe that some Jinns were corrected and believed after the Qur’aan came into the world to Prophet Mohammed, the prayers and peace be upon him. However, we must understand that the character of these Jinns or the identity of these Jinns, also suggest to us that they are irrational. They do not follow the laws of reasoning though they have reasoning. They do not follow the laws, the clear laws of good sound reasoning. They appear to be so far from sound reasoning sometimes that the word here suggests that they are mad creatures---demons even.
Thank you for your time and your attention to this presentation and we hope next time we'll have more time to relate these verses to historical developed message more clearly and more in detail. Thank you very much. Peace be unto you as-salaam alaykum.
Now we are going to go into our second phase; again as-salaam alaykum that is the peace be upon you. After our discussion of the two chapters, Sooratu Al Falaq and Soorati-n-Naas the chapter by the title of the dawn or the day break and the chapter by the title of the people or mankind; we gave the vocabulary on the discussion of the terms of the vocabulary of those two chapters.
At this time, we have joined with us Imam Ibrahim Kamaludin who makes these programs possible for us with his excellent devotion to the dawa and to the media as a vehicle for us. Imam Kamaludin.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: Yes, sir. Thank you very much Brother Imam. I would like to begin by saying I have a few questions that I want to ask you just to clear up a few things, I think it would make it clear. Your presentation was excellent.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Thank you.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: I was very much enlightened by it.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Thank you. We will do better next time. We will be better prepared next time. It's been some time since I have given discussions like this.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: Right. It didn't sound like it. I understand that we're going to come with a couple of more programs to repeat it.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: We hope too, inshallah. That's our hope, sir.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: We will be looking forward to that.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Thank you.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: Now, I will get to the questions. The first question is why is it so important to teach Qur’aanic Arabic in the manner that you have just done?
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Well, you know Arabic is the language of the religion that is Islam. The Qur’aan, the holy book, was revealed in Arabic and not just in any Arabic, it was revealed in the best Arabic. Only G’d’s revelation, G’d himself in the revelation could raise the quality of Arabic up to where it is in Qur’aan. After the Qur’aan, as you know, the Qur’aan became the criteria for measuring or judging the worth and quality of classic value of Arabic. Of the language we call Arabic lughatu-l-‘arabiyya the Arabic language. This language, I believe, is intended G’d's messenger, the last messenger, and then the Arab people; he was one of the Arab people in among them and his language was Arabic and their language was Arabic and the Arabic language when it is studied, it is a language unmatched in terms of its power to convey so much and so clearly in few words in the least amount of words, number of words. It's a highly expressive language; powerful language for communication, for brevity, economy of words.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: I experienced it every time I hear you teach.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Praise be to Allah. Well, that is the language. [Laughs]
Ibrahim Kamaludin: Now, the next question is, many times we hear the teachings of Qur’aan and what you just taught, the comments that you made, how exactly can that benefit us in everyday life?
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: The comments we made on the two chapters?
Ibrahim Kamaludin: Yes, sir.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Yes. Well, when we read the Qur’aan and understand the Qur’aan and the best understanding comes when we understand the Arabic the original text. We have excellent translation in English, as you know. I'm not saying that we are crippled because we don't have Arabic language. We are not crippled. There are excellent translations with commentary that if you read those translations, and also the commentary, you will have good understanding of Qur’aan.
However we know the language of our religion is Arabic and we should have that language especially in America where we have different races now multiplying in America and we all are Muslims coming from Asia coming from Africa coming from the Middle East and we are here America. So many different nationalities different races coming together we are all Muslims we should have Arabic as our second language here. Arabic should be our language for communicating with each other and if we have Arabic as a second language then that will enable us to better understand our Qur’aan as the meanings come directly to us from Arabic rather than having a translation.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: That would also better enable us to understand each other too, wouldn't it?
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Certainly it would. Yes, Arabic is very necessary but first as the language of the Qur’aan, and then secondly to communicate with each other as Muslims on the base that we understand, that is, Qur’aan and the life of Mohamed the prophet, the prayers and the peace be on him. Your question was how do we get the practical benefit? If you listen carefully to the language of Qur’aan, those two chapters that we gave, sooratu-l-falaq the daybreak or the dawn and soorati-n-naas mankind or the people, listen carefully to what have been said, you will know how it is to become a practical benefit in our life.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: That's true.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Yes. The Qur’aan is a religion that is given to serve two major needs, the needs of the soul and the needs of the human being as a working member of society.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: Yes. You also mentioned that you are speaking of the enemy of man and jinn, and you said that it whispers into the soul of man and jinn.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Yes, but it didn't say the enemy of man and jinn, it says the whisperer who whispers into the soul, into the hearts, the word is hearts, suduor means hearts. But that word suduor is translated sometimes souls, but it's not souls. There is another word that means souls. Suduor it means conscience. See the conscience, man's conscience, is oriented towards two features of his being, his intellect and his heart, right? Well suduor can be your conscience too, as a man thinketh in his heart. Yes, that's Christian language, but we also have the same idea that we have conscience the seat of the conscience is in the soul, but it's also expressed from the heart and from the intellect.
The one who whispers into our hearts, the evil one, the Satan and his hosts, members of his host, they whisper, whisper yuwaswisu meaning, what that what they are saying is devilish, what they are saying is deceitful. It has be whispered because if it's said loudly, you will hear it, you might hear it so it wants to pass by the rational ear and get into the soul and the heart, and the heart and the soul you see. So that is the meaning of whisper; it means deception---the suggested deceptions, suggested deceptions whispering into the hearts of the people from the men and from the jinn.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: That's very clear, very clear. Now, you have already cleared that up what is meant by the heart, because you knew I was talking about the physical heart.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Yes I understood.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: How can good and harm both be in created things?
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Good and harm both be in created-- yes. Fire, fire is used in the steel mills and we get great benefit from it. Is used for winter time, we have to have it. Same fire burns us up, the same fire used by pyromaniacs, yes. That is the simple explanation. We don't have to carry it on.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: That's very clear, very clear.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: He gave us intelligence to avoid the harmful use and go only to the good use of those things, of all things.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: You mentioned an-naas and exactly, what does an-naas mean?
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: An-naas means people at large, the whole, all the people on this earth, all the people that Allah created that is an-naas. But it has a special meaning referring to man as a social, conscious social being.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: I think you pretty much cleared up the jinn, but is there anything that you could add---
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: I can't clear the jinn he is a mystery. Yes, he has a reality, but he is also a mystery because there's something about the jinns, that they can appear in different forms and affect us through different forms. They can express themselves from man to man, they can express themselves---some people believe even from animals to man---and it is not really, this is not really the kind of superstition that we are used to in this connection, but it means from anything can come a suggestion to us, as it's coming from a person, as it's coming from a rational thinking person. Now we believe that really the jinn is in us, though it's speaking from outside we believe the jinn is really in us. The worst jinn is the jinn in ourselves.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: Yes. Does that mean how we perceive things?
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Yes.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: Yes okay.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: If you maybe wrap this up, wrap this presentation up and hope to continue the discussion at a later time.
Ibrahim Kamaludin: Thank you very much.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: We thank you very much for giving us, the viewers, for giving us your attention and for supporting this media program, a very excellent program produced by Imam Kamaludin, Ibrahim Kamaludin, Thank you very much, until next time. The peace be upon you As- Salaam Alaykum wa Rahmaatu wa Baraakatu.
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